TM TimeSys Linux/RT Version 1.0 User's Manual The Power of Real-Time in Pure LinuxTM TimeSys Corporation 4516 Henry Street, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania 15213 USA Copyright 2000 by TimeSys Corporation (http://www.timesys.com). TimeWiz and SuiteTime are registered trademarks of TimeSys Corporation. TimeSys, TimeSys Linux/RT, TimeTrace, “Real-Time… Real Solutions”, the TimeSys logo, the TimeSys Linux/RT mascot and the TimeSys Linux/RT product logo are trademarks of TimeSys Corporation. Linux is a registered trademark of Linus Torvalds. Motif and UNIX are registered trademarks of The Open Group. Windows is a registered trademark of Microsoft Corporation. Red Hat is a registered trademark of Red Hat, Inc. All other trademarks and copyrights referred to are the property of their re- spective owners. TimeSys Corporation makes no representations, express or implied, with re- spect to this documentation or the software it describes, including (with no limitation) any implied warranties of utility or fitness for any particular purpose; all such warranties are explicitly disclaimed. Neither TimeSys Corporation nor its distributors, nor its dealers shall be liable for any direct, incidental, or consequential damages under any circumstances. Copyright 2000 by TimeSys Corporation (http://www.timesys.com ) Portions of this manual related to RTAI are derived from the documentation on RTAI, which is copyrighted by Paolo Mategazza (Copyright 1999 by Paolo Mantegazza ([email protected])) and subject to all the limi- tations and conditions expressed in that license. These portions are governed by the GNU Lesser Public License. Distribution of substantively modified versions of this document is prohib- ited without the explicit permission of the copyright holder(s). Distribution of the work or derivative of the work in any standard (paper) book form for commercial purposes is prohibited unless prior permission is obtained from the copyright holder(s). Printed in the United States of America. Table of Contents TIMESYS LINUX/RT: AN INTRODUCTION.....................9 1.1 LINUX EXPLAINED ...........................................................9 1.1.1 A Brief History of Linux..........................................10 1.2 INTRODUCTION TO TIMESYS LINUX/RT.........................12 1.3 WHAT'S IN THIS BOOK ...................................................12 1.3.1 Conventions Used in This Guide.............................13 INSTALLING TIMESYS LINUX/RT.................................15 2.1 INSTALLING WITH DEBIAN .............................................15 2.2 INSTALLING WITH DISTRIBUTIONS OTHER THAN DEBIAN LINUX ...........................................................................................16 2.3 POST-INSTALLATION PROCESS .......................................16 OVERVIEW OF THE SYSTEM .........................................18 3.1 INTRODUCTION TO MODULES ........................................18 3.3 OVERVIEW OF TIMESYS LINUX/RT................................21 3.3.1 Predictable Real-Time Performance Within Pure Linux ........................................................................................21 3.3.2 The TimeSys Linux/RT Architecture........................23 3.3.3 Target Application Domains, Components, and Tools27 3.4 OVERVIEW OF RESOURCE KERNEL (RK)........................28 3.4.1 Linux/RK Capabilities ............................................28 3.4.2 Introduction to Resource Kernels............................29 3.4.3 Reserves and Resource Sets ....................................31 3.4.3 Implementation Features ........................................35 3.5 OVERVIEW OF RTAI......................................................36 3.6 TIMESYS TOOLS AND SERVICES.....................................40 3.6.1 TimeWiz®: Modeling, Analysis, & Simulation .........40 3.6.2 TimeTraceTM: Visualization and Profiling...............42 3.7 FOR MORE INFORMATION..............................................43 RUNNING REAL-TIME PROGRAMS...............................45 3 4.1 USING LINUX/RK USER PROGRAMS .............................. 45 4.1.1 Benefits of Linux/RK .............................................. 45 4.1.2 Linux/RK Utilities .................................................. 46 4.1.3 The “rolling” Demo Utility.................................... 47 4.1.4 The TimeSys Resource Manager Tool..................... 51 4.1.5 Other TimeSys Utilities and Demos........................ 54 4.2 USING RTAI USER PROGRAMS...................................... 55 PROGRAMMING WITH TIMESYS LINUX/RT.............. 57 5.1 PROGRAMMING IN LINUX/RK........................................ 57 5.1.1 Building Linux/RK programs ................................. 57 5.1.2 Linux/RK Capabilities............................................ 57 5.1.3 Resource Sets and CPU Reservations..................... 59 5.1.4 Priority Inheritance Support................................... 62 5.1.5 High-Resolution Clocks and Timers ....................... 62 5.1.6 Periodic Real-Time Threads................................... 63 5.1.7 Physical Memory Management............................... 64 5.2 PROGRAMMING IN RTAI ............................................... 64 APPENDIX: LINUX AND TIMESYS LINUX/RT COMMANDS ............................................................................................... 67 A. 1 LINUX COMMANDS...................................................... 67 A. 2 TIMESYS LINUX/RT RK COMMANDS .......................... 71 GLOSSARY.......................................................................... 73 INDEX .................................................................................. 83 4 Table of Figures FIGURE 1: THE TIMESYS LINUX/RT MASCOT “TAMING” TIME. ............ 21 FIGURE 3: THE RTAI CONFIGURATION OF TIMESYS LINUX/RT ........... 26 FIGURE 4: RESOURCE KERNEL (RK) ARCHITECTURE........................... 31 FIGURE 5: THE “RESERVATION” PARAMETERS. ................................... 33 FIGURE 6: A SCREEN-SHOT OF TIMEWIZ®, A MODELING ANALYSIS AND SIMULATION TOOL TO PREDICT AND PROVE THE TIMING BEHAVIOR OF YOUR REAL-TIME SYSTEM. ...................................................... 41 FIGURE 7: A SCREEN-SHOT OF TIMETRACETM TO MONITOR, VISUALIZE, AND PROFILE THE EXECUTION OF TIMESYS LINUX/RT THREADS..42 FIGURE 8: SCREEN SHOT OF “ROLLING” DEMO UTILITY........................ 48 FIGURE 9: TRM SCREEN SHOT SHOWING CREATION OF RESOURCE SET 51 FIGURE 10:MODE SETTINGS FOR THE RESOURCE MANAGER................ 52 FIGURE 11:ATTACHING PROCESSES TO A RESOURCE SET...................... 53 FIGURE 12: MODIFYING THE CPU TIME OF A RESOURCE SET ............... 54 5 Acknowledgements TimeSys would like to acknowledge the contributions of the following: Members of the Real-Time and Multimedia Systems Labora- tory at Carnegie Mellon University including Prof. Raj Ra- jkumar, Dr. Shui Oikawa, Akihiko Miyoshi, and Dionisio de Niz. Members of the RED Linux project at the University of Cali- fornia at Irvine, including Prof. Kwei-Jay Lin and Yu-Chung Wang. Members of the RTAI project at DIAPM in Italy. RTAI con- tributors include Paolo Mantegazza and his research group at DIAPM, Steve Papacharalambous of Zentropix, and Pi- erre Cloutier of Poseidon Controls, and Of course, the Linux open-source community. 7 Chapter 1: TimeSys Linux/RT: An Introduction ________________________________ Welcome to TimeSys Linux/RT! In this book, you'll find everything you need to get started with TimeSys Linux/RT, from instructions in how to set your system up and navigate it to information about the wide variety of applications available to you under Linux. But first this chapter seeks to answer two very important questions: What exactly is Linux, and what's so special about TimeSys Linux/RT? 1.1 Linux Explained Linux is a free operating system modeled after UNIX — one of the oldest, most reliable, and most widely used operating systems in the world. Linux offers you the benefits of full multitasking, TCP/IP networking, the X-Windows system, and almost any other capability you'd expect from a computer system. With Li- nux, the oldest personal computer can become a powerful workstation. Programmers everywhere, from the corporate world to academia, have found Linux to be the right oper- ating system for their needs. Yet the most distinctive aspect of Linux is the fact that it's free. This means, of course, that you can download Linux 9 TimeSys Linux/RT User’s Guide installation software and continue to get upgrades without laying out any money whatsoever. But it also means that the source code behind the system is available to everyone. Linux is an exemplar of the open source philosophy, which gives every user the potential to become a developer — to play around with the source code, to fix bugs, to extend what the system can do. Anyone with a knowledge of programming basics and a desire to get “down and dirty” can join the community of Linux pro- grammers. The ease of adding to Linux helped TimeSys in designing TimeSys Linux/RT. Instead of having to layer real-time software above Linux, TimeSys Linux/RT was able to give the kernel itself — the core of any Linux system — the ca- pacity to handle real-time applications. Thus, TimeSys Li- nux/RT combines the functionality of a real-time operating system with the stability and reliability of Linux. 1.1.1 A Brief History of Linux Once upon a time, a young University of Helsinki student named Linus Torvalds got it into his head to create a UNIX- like operating system. At this point (1991), UNIX — which made its